author
Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan
1724–1766
An early Irish novelist and playwright, she wrote lively, influential fiction and drama in the mid-18th century. Best known today as the mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, she was a respected writer in her own right whose work was admired by leading literary figures of her time.
1 Audiobook
Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph Extracted from her own Journal, and now first published
by Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan
About the author
Born in Dublin in 1724, Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan was the daughter of the clergyman Philip Chamberlaine. She married the actor, writer, and theatre manager Thomas Sheridan in 1747, and their family included Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who would become one of the best-known playwrights of the next generation.
She built her own reputation through novels and plays, especially Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph and The Discovery. Her writing was known for its emotional force and moral seriousness, and she moved in a literary world that included major 18th-century figures such as Samuel Richardson and Samuel Johnson.
Sheridan died in Blois, France, in 1766. Although she is sometimes remembered mainly through her famous son, she is increasingly recognized as an important Anglo-Irish writer whose work helped shape the literary culture of her time.